Q: How long did most dinosaurs live?
A: We don't know. Big animals, including us, tend to live a long time.
Dinosaur bones sometimes show rings of growth, but we don't know if they
are laid down every year or how often. Surely it took years for the
biggest dinosaurs to grow to full size. (Don Lessem)

Q: Where did dinosaurs live?
A: Dinosaurs lived everywhere on Earth, including the South Pole, which
had no ice then. (Don Lessem)

Q: Why do people say some dinosaurs have small brains?
A: Some dinosaurs had brains the size of peas. Others had the biggest
brains of any animals of their time compared to their size. Dinosaurs
weren't stupid, at least they were smarter than modern reptiles and some
almost as smart as many birds. (Don Lessem)

Q: Do we have any living dinosaurs today, like the coelacanth or komodo
dragon?
A: Those are living dinosaurs only in the sense of being ancient animals
which are still alive, but none are actually dinosaurs. Komodo dragons
grow to huge sizes and eat kids when they can get them. They kill by
their germ-infested slobber when they bite. Fortunately they are only on
one island in Indonesia, far away. Coelacanths are huge fish long
thought extinct, which were found by fisherman in the Indian Ocean in
the 1930's. (Don Lessem)

Q: Were the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park depicted accurately?
A: Yes, I thought by and large the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park were the
best ever done. The Triceratops and T. rex in particular looked very
much like what scientists think they might have, except that T. rex's
teeth might well have closed in its mouth not hung out, and the arms
were a little long. But there were still many inaccuracies, and
interesting ones. The dinosaurs were bigger, faster and smarter overall
than we think they were  sort of like dinosaurs on steroids. The
gamekeeper says velociraptor was "as smart as a chimp, as fast as a
cheetah and they can remember." I don't know about remembering but its
more likely they were dumber than ostriches (by brain size compared to
body size) and slower than us. They were only as big as standard
poodles! The spitter is dilophosaurus, a dinosaur that was really the
first big meat-eater, 20 feet long and as far as we know didn't spit
poison or have a neck frill that fanned out. Most of the dinosaurs in
the movie are Cretaceous not Jurassic animals. (Don Lessem)

A: The accuracy of Michael Crichton's rendering of dinosaurs in Jurassic
Park varies (I have not read The Lost World). He certainly goes
overboard on velociraptor with the sort of intelligence he gives it, and
in the film its size was about 3 times the size of actual specimens.
Velociraptor is a close relative of modern day birds, but it has a
somewhat smaller brain and thus its behavior patters were no more
complex that what one would find in a bird today. You might keep in mind
that Crichton's books are science fiction, and that he is not one to let
the truth get in the way of a good story. (Tim Rowe)

Q: Can people remake a dinosaur using a robot? Can they be life size?
A: Yes, full-sized robot dinosaurs have been made. The best was a T. rex
made for the movie Jurassic Park. I saw it being made, and it could do
all sorts of complicated computer driven movements. But it wasn't nearly
as scary as the real thing would be. (Don Lessem)

Q: Which dinosaur would have made the best pet?
A: Great question! I'd choose a triceratops to mow my lawn (though grass
wasn't around in dinosaur times), a T. rex to cut my steak, and an
ornithomimid (an ostrich-like dinosaur) to ride around on. But the best
for inside the house might be a compsognathus, a little meat-eater about
the size of a big chicken. I just hope it could be house-trained! (Don
Lessem)

Q: If you depended on a dinosaur for transportation, which one would you
choose and why?
A: I think a gallimius would be best for a racing dinosaur, but hard to
stay in the saddle. Triceratops would be a nice comfortable slow ride
and you could hold onto his frill so you wouldn't fall off. (Don Lessem)

Q: Do you know anything about Champ, who supposedly lives in Lake
Champlain? Do you think he is real? Many have compared him to the Loch
Ness monster.
A: I know about Champ  the supposed sea monster in Lake Champlain.
Like Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, Champ is thought by some people to be a
dinosaur-aged leftover, a sea reptile called a plesiosaur. I wish this
were true, but I don't think it's possible. Why would this animal live
on in only one or two places 65 million year after it disappeared
everywhere else? It would need to have several dozens to have a breeding
population to stay around that long. Plus, people only see bits of one
and then never find a bone or make a clear picture of it. I think it a
wonderful fantasy that there is a Champ. (Don Lessem)